THE MARBLE HARP
The social meeting of the Up and Doing Club lasted less than an hour.
It was quite evident that it had been mainly held for the introduction
of Ruth Fielding and her chum into the society of the Briarwood girls.
Those gathered in the assembly room did not number any Seniors, but
were all of the Junior grade, and all older than Ruth and Helen.
"Primes" were not allowed by Mrs. Tellingham to join any of the
class-governed societies.
In spite of the fact that Ruth suspected Mary Cox of deliberately
throwing herself in the way of Helen and she on their arrival at the
school, with the sole object of getting them pledged to this society,
the girl from the Red Mill could not fail to appreciate the
good-natured attempts of the Upedes to make them both feel at home in
their new surroundings. They _must_ be grateful for that.
Nor were they urged at this time to join the club. At least, nobody
said more to Ruth about joining than had the stout girl, Jennie Stone,
on their way to this meeting. The party broke up in such good season,
that it was scarcely dark when the chums left the room in the dining
hall and strolled back to their dormitory with their new friends. The
lamps around the campus were being lighted by a little old Irishman,
who wore a wreath of short, gray whiskers and hair about his face--a
regular frame. His long upper lip and his chin were shaven, and this
arrangement gave him a most comical appearance.
"You're late again to-night, Tony," Jennie Stone remarked, as she and
Ruth came down the steps of the dining hall together.
The little Irishman backed down the short flight of steps he carried,
with a groan. He had just lighted the final lamp of the series that
surrounded the campus.
"And well I might be--well I might be," grumbled the man. "'Tis me
needs fower pair of hands, instead of wan pair, and as many legs as a
cinterpig." Tony evidently meant _centipede_. "'Tis 'Tony, here!' and
'Tony, there!' iv'ry blissid minute av th' day. An' 'tis movin' trunks
an' boxes, and the like--Mis' Grace should hire a nelephant at this
time of the year, an' so I tell her. An' what with these here
foreigners too--bad 'cess to them! I have to chase ev'ry rag tag and
bobtail on the place, so I do----"
"Not tramps again, Tony?" cried Jennie Stone.
"'Tis worse. Musickle bodies, they be. Playin' harps an' fiddles, an'
the loikes. Sure, 'twill be hand-organs an' moonkeys to-morrer,
belike. Ah, yes!"
"Maybe some of these traveling musicians can play the marble harp
yonder," said Heavy, with a chuckle, pointing to the now half-shrouded
figure in the center of the campus.
"Oh, wirra, wirra! don't be sayin' it," grumbled the old man. "There's
bad luck in speakin' of _thim_ folks."
Jennie Stone squeezed Ruth's arm, still laughing, as they went on and
left the old Irishman. "He's just as superstitious as he can be," she
whispered. "He really believes the old story about the harp."
"He ought to believe in a harp," laughed Ruth, in return, "he being
Irish. Tell me, who is he?"
"Anthony Foyle. He's the only workman about the place who sleeps on
the premises. His wife's our cook. They're a comical old couple--and
she _does_ make the nicest tarts! They'd melt in your mouth if you
could only make up your mind to hold them long enough on your tongue,"
sighed Heavy, rapturously.
"But what's the story about the marble harp?" queried Ruth, as they
came to the dormitory and joined the other girls. "You mean the harp
held by that figure at the fountain?"
"Hello!" cried Belle Tingley. "Heavy's trying to scare the Infant with
the campus ghost story."
"Oh! a real ghost story!" cried Helen. "Do let's hear it."
"Come into our room, Cameron," said Lluella Fairfax, lazily, "and I
will tell the tale and harrow up thy young soul----"
"And make thy hair stand on end like quills upon the fretful
'porkypine,'" finished Mary Cox. "Yes! let Lluella tell it. It is
well for Infants to learn the legends as well as the rules of Briarwood
Hall."
Helen was used to being called "Infant" by now and didn't mind so much.
She was so much taken with their new friends and the Upedes in general
that she went right into the room occupied by Mary Cox and her chums,
without a word to Ruth, and the latter followed with Heavy, perforce.
The windows of the "quartette" looked out upon the campus. The lights
in the other dormitory shone brightly and the lamps around the open
space, which the buildings of Briarwood surrounded, glimmered in the
dark. Voices came up to them from the walks; but soon these ceased,
for the girls were all indoors. The campus was deserted.
"Don't let's light the lamp," said Lluella. "I can tell stories better
in the dark."
"And ghost stories, too," laughed Helen.
"Not so much of a ghost story--at least, there's nothing really
terrible about it," returned Miss Fairfax, slowly. "I suppose there
are not many people who talk about it, outside of our own selves here
at Briarwood. But once--before the school came here--the marble statue
down there was the talk of the whole countryside. I believe Mrs.
Tellingham doesn't like the story to be repeated," added Miss Fairfax.
"She thinks such superstitions aren't good for the minds of the Primes
and Infants," and the story-teller laughed.
"However, it is a fact that the original owner of Briarwood Hall had a
beautiful daughter. She was the apple of his eye--all beautiful
daughters are apples of their fathers' eyes," said Lluella, laughing.
"Jennie is _her_ father's apple----"
"Adam's apple," suggested Mary Cox.
"Such a size for an Adam's apple would choke a giant," murmured Belle
Tingley, for the three were always joking poor Heavy because of her
over-plumpness.
"Don't you bother about my father," said Jennie, calmly. "He gives me
a dollar every month for chocolate creams, and you girls help eat them,
I notice."
"Hurrah for the Stone _pere_!" cried Mary Cox. "Go on, Lluella."
"You sound as though you cheered for a sea-wall of masonry, or some
such maritime structure," complained Jennie. "'Stone _pere_,' indeed!"
"She sha'n't have any of the next box of creams, Heavy," said Lluella,
soothingly.
"And I'm not sure that _you_ will, either," replied the fat girl.
"_Do_ tell your story, Miss!" and Heavy yawned monstrously.
"How _dare_ you yawn before 'taps'?" cried Belle. "I'll douse the
water-pitcher over you, Jennie."
At this threat the fat girl sat up promptly and again urged Lluella to
continue her tale. So Miss Fairfax continued:
"This rich old gentleman with the apple in his eye--in other words, a
beautiful daughter--had a great deal more money than sense, I think.
He engaged a sculptor to design a fountain for his lawn, and the draped
figure you have seen upon that pedestal down yonder, is supposed to be
the portrait of the beautiful daughter cut into enduring marble by the
man who _sculped_. But, unfortunately for the old gentleman's peace of
mind while he _sculped_ the marble the artist likewise made love to the
young lady and they ran away and were married, leaving the old
gentleman nothing but the cold marble statue playing the marble harp,
in place of a daughter.
"The father's heart at once became as adamant as the marble itself, and
he refused to support the sculptor and his wife. Now, either the
runaway couple died miserably of starvation in a garret, or were
drowned at sea, or were wrecked in a railroad accident, or some other
dreadful catastrophe happened to them--I'm not sure which; for after a
time there began to be something strange about the fountain. The old
man lived here alone with his servants for a number of years; but the
servants would not remain long with him, for they said the place was
haunted."
"Oh my!" exclaimed Helen.
"That's right, Miss Cameron. Please show the proper amount of
thrilling interest. They said the fountain was queer. The water never
poisoned anybody; but sometimes the marble strings of the marble harp
in the marble hand or the marble daughter would be heard to twang in
the night. Weird music came from the fountain at ghostly hours. Of
course, the little harp the statue holds is in the form of a lyre; and
what the people were who told these stories about the ghostly twanging
of the instrument--you may draw your own conclusions," laughed Lluella
Fairfax.
"However, the old gentleman at last broke up his household, or died, or
moved to town, or something, and Briarwood was put up for sale and the
school came here. That was a good many years ago. Dr. Tellingham's
wig matched his fringe of hair when the school first began here, so
that must have been a good while ago. The twanging of the marble harp
has been heard down through the school ages, so it is
said--particularly at queer times----"
"Queer times?" asked Ruth.
"Why, when something out of the common was about to happen. They say
it twanged the night before our team beat the basket-ball team from
Varden Preparatory. There was a girl here once who ran away because
her folks went to Europe and left her behind at school. She was
determined to follow them, and she got as far as New York and stole
aboard a great steamer so as to follow her parents; only the steamship
she boarded had just come in instead of just going out. They say the
marble harp twanged _then_."
"And when Heavy failed to oversleep one morning last half the marble
harp must have twanged _that_ time," declared Mary Cox.
A gentle snore answered from the window seat, where Jennie Stone had
actually gone to sleep.
"Wasted humor," said Mary, laughing. "Heavy is in the Land of Nod.
It's been a hard day for her. At supper she had to eat her own and
Miss Fielding's share of the cup-custards."
Ruth and Helen had already risen to go.
"You'll remember, Infants," said Lluella, "when you hear the twang of
the ghostly harp, that something momentous is bound to happen at
Briarwood Hall."
"But more important still," warned Mary, "be sure that your lights are
out within twenty minutes after retiring bell sounds. Otherwise you
will have that cat, Picolet, poking into your room to learn what is the
matter."